epa04337473 (FILE) A file photo dated 15 May 2009 showing workers assembling vehicles in a Geely Automobile factory in Ningbo, China. China's monthly index of manufacturing activity climbed 01 August 2014 to a 27-month high of 51.7 per cent in July, up from 51 per cent in June and suggesting stable growth in the world's second-largest economy. The rise in the purchasing managers' index reflected the success of government policies to stabilize growth and an 'improving external environment, which helped boost production and new orders,' said Zhao Qinghe, an economist with the National Bureau of Statistics. The similar Markit/HSBC Purchasing Managers' Index, which more closely tracks private sector manufacturing, rose to an 18-month high of 51.7 in July. The 50-per-cent mark denotes the divide between expansion and contraction of purchasing orders. China's annual economic growth slumped to 7.7 per cent in the last two years, the slowest since 1999, and is not expected to increase this yea

epa04337473 (FILE) A file photo dated 15 May 2009 showing workers assembling vehicles in a Geely Automobile factory in Ningbo, China. China's monthly index of manufacturing activity climbed 01 August 2014 to a 27-month high of 51.7 per cent in July, up from 51 per cent in June and suggesting stable growth in the world's second-largest economy. The rise in the purchasing managers' index reflected the success of government policies to stabilize growth and an 'improving external environment, which helped boost production and new orders,' said Zhao Qinghe, an economist with the National Bureau of Statistics. The similar Markit/HSBC Purchasing Managers' Index, which more closely tracks private sector manufacturing, rose to an 18-month high of 51.7 in July. The 50-per-cent mark denotes the divide between expansion and contraction of purchasing orders. China's annual economic growth slumped to 7.7 per cent in the last two years, the slowest since 1999, and is not expected to increase this yea